Surgeons use external fixation systems to treat certain bony skeletal injuries or conditions, such as acute fractures of the skeleton, soft tissue injuries, delayed union of the skeleton when bones are slow to heal, nonunion of the skeleton when bones have not healed, malunion of broken or fractured bones, congenital deformities resulting in malposition of bone, and bone lengthening, widening, or twisting. These systems typically include a frame formed by fixation components coupling one or more of a bar, rod, wire or pin.
Generally, one or more bone pins or wires are inserted into the tissue and bone and then the remainder of the fixation system is assembled. In many cases, two pins are inserted below the fracture and two pins are inserted above the fracture. The surgeon then attaches a fixation component to each pin, bridging the fixation components together with rods or bars. These bars form the frame of the external fixation system. Fracture patterns are infinite and may require the fixation system to move in multiple planes simultaneously in order to stabilize and reduce the fracture properly.